Digital Training

Training aids for surgeons

A USB stick containing 7 complete lip or palate surgical procedures is available on request and FREE to surgeons. Read more

Latest

Patricia Rorison will be representing CLEFT at the BLAPRAS National Undergraduate Conference.

Barts and the London Association of Plastic Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgical Society National Undergraduate Conference 2024: 27th January 2024
BLAPRAS National Plastic Surgery Conference X CLEFT

We are a student society in which we are running a global plastic surgery conference. We will be running a cleft lip workshop and have a cleft lip talk by a cleft surgeon. We want to raise awareness of this subspecialty and also thought it would be a greta idea to introduce a fund-raising aspect to this event.
New Year, New CLEFT Challenge!

We are VERY excited to announce our January challenge - Give It Up or Take It Up! Are you ready to kickstart 2024? This January, we challenge you to either Give It Up, giving up something like chocolate, caffeine or alcohol, or Take It Up, starting a new activity, like walking, painting or yoga. The choice is yours with an activity that is personal to you, fits in with daily routine and is challenging yet achievable.
New microscope unveiled in Iraq

Brian Sommerlad recently returned from his tenth visit to the cleft centre in Sulaimania in the Kurdish region of Iraq where he was able to attend the unveiling of the new operating microscope, donated by CLEFT.

Most read

Nawrin and the C-Arm

This important piece of equipment was supplied by CLEFT and is used to see moving images of the cleft palate. Nawrin is a 13 year old girl who was experiencing speech difficulties and needed the C-Arm to show the cleft team if further surgery was required.
Sheikh Hasina National Institute of Burns and Plastic Surgery

We are working with Bangladeshi specialists at the new Sheikh Hasina National Institute of Burns and Plastic Surgery to create a sustainable centre to treat children with cleft lip and palate.
Our mission

CLEFT was established in 2007 with one aim, to help improve the lives of children born with cleft lip and palate, either by funding research into the likely causes of the condition or by helping support teams in lower and middle income countries.
Donate

You can make a one-off donation today or sign up to giving a regular monthly gift. All donations, small or large, will help us to improve the lives of those born with cleft lip and palate both now and in the future.
The genetics of cleft lip and palate

Investigations into the genetics of cleft lip and palate to understand more about why cleft lip and palate occurs.
Brian Sommerlad, Consultant Plastic Surgeon and Chair of Trustees

For over 40 years, I have been involved in operating on babies, children and adults who have been born with cleft lip and/or palate.
About us

CLEFT was established in 2007 by cleft surgeon Brian Sommerlad - based at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, together with a former patient and a patient's grandmother.
MRI Speech Assessment

This important research looked at using MRI to assess whether further surgery could improve speech for people with repaired clefts.
An interview with Brian Sommerlad

This is a wonderful interview where the children ask the questions.
Our research vision

At CLEFT, our vision is of a future where clefts are preventable. Until we get there, we want to improve the lives of those born with cleft lip and palate.